9:15pm: Dirty Projectors hop on stage. The excitement is starting to build in the air. The crowd is beginning to fill out, the coat pile at our feet is ever-growing. The leader singer, Dave Longstreth, gawky body is pacing the stage, head bobbing front to back. Directly in front of me is the big brown-eyed female bassist straight out of Stone Junkie’s dreams. I could watch her and Amber (guitarist) sing harmonies for days…..
These songs are both off their new record, Rise Above, which is a remake of the Black Flag’s Damage album done from memory of Longstreth’s youth. Dirty P has been an AKAK special sauce band for the past year and I have a friend named John Vinyard of Texas to thank for turning me on to them.
Imagine It! is such as powerful live performance, particularly when Amber yells from a foot away at the mic.
After the performance Dave announces that this is the final performance of the Rise Above album and a new album with subsequent live playlist will take over.
8:30pm: Megafaun (or as I call them Megafun) appeared on stage with Ebee and I among the few who were already standing up at the front of the stage. The venue was dark and smelled of roasted corn dogs and a German brewery. The band’s beards provided all the coziness of a New Hampshire B & B and we quickly discarded our coats and scarfs in the left corner of the 800 square foot room. I wish I had more footage of Megafaun but I had to save for others and I was waiting for them to play Lazy Suicide which never happened.
It is the people at these shows which I love almost as much as the bands; particularly at an Akron show. We met two great people who had driven from Chicago, John and Naia as well as Dan and a kid who was about to experience his first live show ever. There was another New Yorker who spoke to me about the magic of the front left spot at venues (which is where I always try to be as well…..) He does not buy records or cds, solely listening to live music. Genius.
Please check back for another video of the first band as well as a review of the show itself. As of right now, I am on three hrs of sleep and about to pass out, but I had to get this video up that was produced at the show.
Today I received an email from a friend who told me that they just heard Akron Family for the first time and did not know how they could have been missing out on this experience for so long.
As most of you know, when this band is mentioned my heart swells (not in that aforementioned gay way) because I too remember a time before I had heard or could hear the aura that is AK. The first album I got was the Self-Titled with Angels of Light on a Lex recommendation (Thank you Lex for all of them). I was not ready to hear it though, giving it two tries before tossing it into the cd cabinet. One day I was studying for a final at UCLA and I for some reason (God) popped it into the cd player. It clicked. My brain had evolved enough to comprehend it. By “Future Myth” I was dancing alone in my living room. 4 months later found me with 7 other friends watching the show of our lives within the Troubador. That was it. My life has truly never been the same since that moment. I was transformed. I am not kidding. In most days I can close my eyes and still go back to that 2 1/2 hr session. Ever since then I (actaully we) have been doing 4 shows a month (at least), trying (sometimes successfully) to recapture that feeling that we now know exists. I never knew what life was like to not have a personal thought for 2 1/2 hrs. Sometime people look at me weird when I get all excited about them like Sunday night for example. But that is just 1/16 of the energy which my soul was filled with during that particular performance.
This interview is about how love is simple and ed is a portal.
During their shows, we are all ed and they are the portal.
ALHP has the high school hots for one of the man beasts in this photo…*hint* Not Bob.
JP: Honorable mention goes to TNV for serving up a delicious appetizer
Deerhunter – “You Made Me Realise Moment”
JP: This video is to being there as a menu is to real food. Believe it or not, this was only the 2nd song they played (recording was interrupted by a bouncer). One show at at time the heart experiences renaissance…
For starters who can’t love a rock star who is willing to post this self-portiat on his myspace account.
Now down to business. I am listening to the album right now on my 5th trip through from start to finish. Originally I thought it was a 8.5, but the more I listen the more I realize how much of a beautiful production it really is. In my opinion, an album should not be judged by its individual songs but rather the sum which embodies its extremities . On a whole, the album might be the best I have heard in 2008. I cant wait to see Bradford Cox play with Deerhunter in 9 days. Sorry again mom I love you but my soul must take this journey.
The song “Scraping Past” is a mixture between the first time I smoked opium and what I imagine it would be like to orbit the universe beside Haley’s comet.
Firstly I have to apologize for my initial judgements made prior to the show, I had stated that they in fact could do absolutely no justice to the MBV you-made-me-realise full body experience. Yet in fact during this last minute Halloween adventure, Asobi did come near doing just that. Granted they did not have a half of million dollars in speakers on stage to reach the 128 Dbs which “realise” had in its favor.
The band is comprised of a 5-foot Asian female vocalist who sung sweet tonal ranges while the guitar player strummed at a furious rate. Intense harmonies were often outlined by bright white lights showing from beneath the front of the stage. Per usual, I fell in love with the drummer (the melody from Wilco’s Heavy Metal Drummer did started playing in my head) who really owned the whole show in my opinion. The show was highlighted by a 9 to 12 minute shoegaze masterpiece that ends with a low grade “you made me realise” sound that is looped through a keyboard while they exit the stage…..it was perfect. In the end, the show caused my leg tapped feverishly as I hoped to match the percussionists precision on the bass drum.
The best part of the night has nothing to do with music though…well kind of nothing to do with music. Outside on the patio, the gang got to meet a young woman who had not been to a show in 6 years. This 24 year old was dressed as a “flopper” which is supposedly a woman from the 1920s. My hope is that the combination of costume, distance and Asobi would be the catalysts for change in her life, propelling her ultimately to join this movement that continues to grow despite the scenesters and general empathy of the current adolescent generation.
In one sentence: It might have been best show I have seen at the Echo which means they beat out the likes of the Fleet Foxes, Xiu Xiu and the Dirty Projectors.
~Capt AKAK
PS I realize I need pictures in the future, fuck words.
Monday night. LA. The Echo. The Captain and I learned a few things on this chilly Election Eve:
1. Scenesters are the new hipsters and I’m pretty sure they have no interest in music.
2. The only thing lamer than smashing your guitar on stage is pretending to smash your guitar on stage.
3. Joan of Arc had a rough go of things.
We arrived during a performance by Light (I think) and amidst the screaming and loud noises I caught something about happiness not being cheesy, but good. The woman who uttered this nugget of gold was a scenester. One may assume this reclamation of happiness would go against the belief system of a scenester. Not so. This would be likening a scenester to a hipster, who, of course, is too indifferent to experience happiness. A scenester enjoys a good time. Throw on a gold lamé bikini, add an unusually cut tank top, blue jean cutoffs, black sheer tights, finish with furry boots and they will dance their little hearts out to the house music between bands. Scenesters don’t really care what music is playing (they may not even like music), they are there to be seen and a nice long mustachio, full mountain man beard, or mullet will ensure that.
The next band, Weave, was the supposed reason for being there. All scenesters, for sure: cutoffs, holey clothes, oddly placed scarves, clothespins in hair. Struggling to ignore the singer/bass player’s constant cursing, encouragements to vote, and attempts at sultriness, I focused on Sleeping Beauty playing over the stage. As a result, I missed the debacle that caused the guitarist to seemingly smash his guitar. The keyboardist, who was wearing fake dreads, joined him on the floor and shortly thereafter they proceeded off stage. I felt mildly sorry for the remaining members, the potty-mouthed singer and comparatively subdued female drummer, but they persisted and the keyboardist triumphantly returned, sans dreads, to rock the tambourine. For the closing song, the guitarist managed to make it back on stage and revealed that he had in fact only fake smashed the guitar. He turned his back to the audience though, and didn’t actually play. Album release party success!
The actual reason we were there was Warpaint. During their performance, Victor Fleming’s Joan of Arc was playing. I’m not sure there could be anything more haunting than the close up of a teary eyed Ingrid Bergman as Joan to the accompaniment of Warpaint’s reverberation. They too put an enormous effort into dressing as unattractively as possible, but their musical talent and knife-twisting-in-heart lyrics excuse their proclivity for parachute pants and moo moos. “Oh wonderful one, why are you like that?”
It seems that one of the ways we can utilize this bubbling blog of potential is to spread the good word of good sound. So, let me kick this off with the Primitive Radio Gods, a band I find more than appropriate to drop into the ears of the good people that visit this site.
This band will have you burning holes into your fucking shoes.
To my knowledge, their 15 minutes of fame started and ended with a gem; Standing Outside a Broken Phonebooth with Money in my Hand. I came upon this song when I was a young little tot after purchasing The Cable Guy soundtrack, and I am tempted to say that this song was the first song to speak to my soul. Some of you may know it, for I think it still gets some radio play.
AMG shows they only released 2 albums. However, my ipod rocks 6 of their releases, all of which (I believe) can be found/purchased from
Also, the typical amazon.com, itunes, emusic, etc. should have their works.
Their first official release under Columbia records, Rocket, is (oddly enough) unlike 95% of their later produced work. Only one of the tracks, thePhonebooth song, aims for the shoe gazeing vibe, while the rest of the album is an eclectic mash-up of loud, somewhat ear offending, very random samples, noises, and beats, all blended into an up-beat alternative playlist. Not all too impressive the first 50 times you listen to it, but it grows on you.
Their next album, White Hot Peach, released under a more independent label, What Are Records, is an album that I feel every reader on TSS should own. This album blends the perfect elements: Shoe gazing, soft jazz, faster folk-like tracks, and the epic sounds of synth-space rock. Some track highlights would be:
Message From Steven, Gotta Know Now, Ghost of a Chance (a song with shout outs to the likes of Miles Davis and the Coltrane), and Motor of Joy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msGGfYTHlEA)
Their next album, Still Electric, is a pure space-synth-prog rock experimental album. Easily, thee most haunting album I have ever come across. The sounds and songs are so…..big, that I had a tough time with this album when I first came upon it. But, as are most epic albums, the beauty beneath the music reveals itself with time. Nearly that whole album can be found on their youtube page:
Some stand out tracks on this one would be Ripped in November (the 3rd video on their list), Under the Grey Star (5th video), and What if I Sped (9th). But that whole album was made to flow, so its hard to say which tracks take the cake.
The rest of their releases, EPs, remixes, etc. can be found on their .info website. Most of which is similar to what I provided above. Although, the albums Mellotron On! and Umpteen Spookes (an emusic exclusive) are less spacey and eclectic, they are much more accessible, catchy, and upbeat. Somewhat more of crowd pleasing albums, but done just right.
That’s all I got. If only but one of you finds a new love in their music making, then my effort was worth it.
